LONDON: "The Hunger Games" made a whopping $155 million at the US box office, making it the third-best debut film ever.

It is behind the $169.2 million achieved by the "Harry Potter" finale last year and the 2008 Batman movie "The Dark Knight".

"The Hunger Games", is the highest grossing non-sequel in history beating its rival "The Twilight Saga" which only took in $69.6 million during its opening weekend back in November 2008, reports contactmusic.com.

The film sees a glittering cast of young and older actors mix in a classy sci-fi adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel which sees 24 youths forced to compete in a televised death match in a post-apocalyptic North American society.